Charles Howe
Charles (Chuck) Howe has served as expert witness in two U.S. interstate river cases and coauthored a leading book on the economics of interbasin water transfers, Interbasin Transfers of Water: Economics and Policy. He chaired a National Research Council committee on privatization of urban water utilities, and was the lead author on water resources for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II, which received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Howe has done extensive research on urban water demand, water pricing, and the design and functioning of water markets, including the impacts of agriculture-to-urban water transfers on rural economies. His books on natural resource economics (Natural Resource Economics) and benefit-cost analysis (Benefit-Cost Analysis for Water System Planning) were long used as standard graduate texts in those fields. Howe's current research deals with reconciling conflicts between Western U.S. water law and the economically efficient use of water.
Howe was a professor of economics (natural resources) at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1970-2000, the director of the Environment and Behavior Program (water resources and economic development) from 1986-1997, and the director of the Water Resources Program, Resources for the Future, from 1965-1970. He is now retired from the economics department and is a professional staff member of CU's Institute of Behavioral Science. He has worked with national, regional and state governments in several countries to help develop effective water planning institutions with an emphasis on river basin planning.
Related Resources from Chuck Howe
A Return to Unified River Basin Planning and Management
September 2009
